Graham, the FEC, and the Parrotheads

Here's a cautionary tale. While I first saw this in the St. Petersburg Times, Jim Defede in the Miami Herald tells the story a bit better. Sen. Bob Graham was hoping to raise about a million for his presidential campaign with a Jimmy Buffett concert.

So what went wrong?

It probably won't come as a big surprise to folks that Buffett fans have a laid-back view of life and a healthy distrust of authority. Unfortunately, those traits don't mesh well with campaign finance law.

When Graham's staff told Buffett's staff that concert-goers were also technically campaign donors and therefore would be required to fill out forms listing their name, address and occupation, the Buffett camp became very nervous.

''They said it would offend the Buffett fan base,'' Johnson said.

Or, as that Texan would say: "When you try to stick the square peg of FEC regs into the round hole of Parrotheads, somebody's gonna squawk."